


Mourning Flowers

by Scarlet_Streak



Series: HackedTale AU [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU - Hackedtale, But got a weird stranger instead, Can be seen as platonic or beginnings of romance, Echoflowers, Everyone feels way too much guilt, F/M, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, It's pertinent to the plot just trust me, M/M, Mourning, Other, Papyrus Needs A Hug, Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Reader accidentally eavesdrops, Reader is a Botanist, Reader-Insert, Second Person, Some story reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 15:59:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15889302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlet_Streak/pseuds/Scarlet_Streak
Summary: Honestly, you just wanted to know where the flowers were coming from.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, this is another little Reader Insert for my AU, Hackedtale. Hopefully, it isn't too awful.

You’ve lived in the city near the base of Mount Ebott for almost three years now, having moved there after finishing your studies. You had majored in Botany, and heard that there was something strange about the plants around the mountain itself, so you had decided that it might be an interesting place to start your career. You obtained permission to study the local flora, but had yet to find anything truly out of the ordinary. After a few months of finding nothing, you had to pick up a series of part-time jobs to allow you to pay the rent on your apartment. On the weekends, however, you continued your search for anything unusual, not ready to give up on finding proof behind the rumors that had led you there. Your searches always seemed to bring you back to two places: a cave-in in the side of the mountain, and a tunnel at the end of a trail up near the peak. The hole seemed to go down for miles, with a barely visible patch of flowers at the bottom, which you still hadn’t worked up the courage to find a way to investigate. The tunnel, however, was something you’d never felt the need to explore; it just felt wrong, and the air around it was strange, almost as if it was full of static. Standing too close to it caused the hairs on your arms and neck to stand up straight, and it was unusually silent. The view, though, was incomparable, especially when it came to watching the sunset. 

However, everything changed almost two months ago, when the monsters emerged from that very same tunnel and settled down outside the city. Their existence had been a legend in the area, spanning back generations to before the founding of the city. But something seemed wrong. Their mood was not that of those who’d recently escaped captivity, but of mourners arriving at a funeral, and many of them had bloodstains on their limbs and clothes. The monsters refused to explain how they escaped, or where the stains came from. Their king, Asgore, begged for them to be allowed to grieve before they told their story. That didn’t stop the speculations, though. You heard stories ranging from cannibalism to human sacrifice, but none seemed to fit with your opinion of the monsters. They were kind and gentle, many of them still too afraid of humans to venture into the city. Mettaton, who seemed to be a star of some sorts among the monsters, had been instrumental in the attempts to incorporate monsters into human society, handling interviews and PR while the king recovered from whatever had happened during the years spent underground. However, even with all his charisma and confidence, certain questions still seemed to make Mettaton’s ever-present smile turn forced. He made vague statements about a friend who they’d lost while gaining their freedom. The mystery continued until one of your visits to the mountainside led you to a strange discovery: A small pile of rocks, placed to make a crude statue of a child. An umbrella had been placed over it, and bundles of flowers were at its feet. They were like nothing you’d ever seen before, completely blue and phosphorescent with 6 petals. The strangest thing, however, wasn’t the glow. It was the voices that seemed to come from them. It was barely audible, just murmurs of static interspersed with pieces of phrases: “So sorry…” “I miss…” “Failed you…” “Please forgive...” “Never should have…” “Make things right…”

The flowers were replaced by fresh blooms some time between Saturday and Sunday, and each week there seemed to be more flowers, each with new messages to accompany the older ones. About 5 weeks after this began, you finally decided to keep watch one night to find out who was leaving them. Hiding behind the bushes near the statue, you sat patiently, anticipation growing as the sun inched its way down below the horizon.


	2. Mourning Flowers

The sky is completely dark now, save for the stars and moon. You’ve been sitting on the cold ground for what feels like ages, and you almost decided to stand up and stretch when you hear the sounds of faint, hushed voices coming from down the path. “Do you have the echoflowers?”

“Of course I do, Tori. They’re still in the bag. See? You can see the glow.”

“I was just checking.” To your surprise, the voices belong to Asgore Dreemurr, the king of monsters, and his ex-wife, Toriel. Her head is bowed slightly, her gaze trained intently on her feet. “Thank you for accompanying me this time.”

“No thanks are necessary. I happen to have something to say as well.” Asgore opens the bag he’d brought with him. Inside are the flowers that you’d been finding, even more brilliant in their currently unwilted state. What had she called them, again? 

You’re startled out of your thoughts as Toriel carefully takes one of the flowers out of the bag and begins to speak. “My child… I have so much to say, but no words to say it with. I still cannot believe you are really gone. It seems like only yesterday we were sitting in my kitchen eating Cinnamon Butterscotch pie.” She laughs, her voice shaking as she wipes the corners of her eyes. You notice that Asgore has turned his back to Toriel and the statue, as if trying to give them a moment alone, and you immediately realize that you are eavesdropping on something that is probably incredibly private. “I wish-- I wish I had not let you go. We all could have escaped this nightmare if I’d been able to convince you to stay. It would have given Sans a chance to figure out how to fix everything without--” Her voice breaks, and Toriel stops for a moment. You can see the struggle on her face to regain her composure. “The pain you must have felt… I cannot imagine it. An even through all of it you kept smiling. You would not let us give up, even when you were staring death in the face, and now you are free. Free from the pain, free from the bonds of the code, and free from us. Rest well, my little one.” She places her flower at the base of the statue, and you can hear her message repeat itself. It’s safe to say that you are more than a little confused, but you have no time to reflect on your new information as Asgore lifts up a flower of his own, still facing away from the statue. “I suppose it’s my turn now, isn’t it?”

He turns, his steps towards the statue slow and reluctant. When he finally reaches it, he kneels down, eyes trained on the flower. “Child. I want-- no, need to apologize for everything I put you through. I can’t even imagine how you have suffered at my hand. I wanted to make things right, only to realize that I would have to give you your final death while everyone looked on. That feeling of helplessness…” He shakes his head, as if trying to dislodge the memory from his head. “ I am so sorry. Your pain has ended now. I just wish it hadn’t had to go this way. I wish we could have taken you up to the surface with--” You hear more voices making their way up the mountain, and Asgore drops his flower. “I should go, before the rest of them come up here.” He stands up, walking quickly past Toriel and down the path. Toriel shakes her head, and speaks, partially to herself and partially to the statue, “He wants to take all the blame for himself. Everyone does.”

With that, she also departs, and moments later a new pair arrives: Undyne, the captain of the royal guard, and Alphys, the royal scientist. You recognized them from seeing them on tv at the press conferences Asgore had been forced to attend when the monsters had first arrived. They’ve only brought one flower, which Alphys holds carefully with both hands. They stop about a foot away from the statue. “Hey, Frisk,” says Undyne, “it’s been a while. Alphys finally made me come up here too…” She stops, shaking her head. “This is stupid, Al. You said it was going to help.” Alphys shifts the flower over to one hand and puts the other on Undyne’s shoulder. “Y-you have to finish talking. That’s w-when it starts to help. T-trust me.” 

“What if I don’t know what to say?”

“It w-will come to you. Just start t-talking.” Undyne nods, then starts again. “Kid, not having you with us… it sucks. Maybe no one wants to acknowledge it, but it’s true. Every sunrise and sunset makes us think of you, and how much better they’d be if you got to see them too. Everyone blames themselves. We haven’t seen Sans or that stupid flower in weeks. Papyrus says they’re working on a way to bring you back, but I don’t think that’s how it works. Speaking of Papyrus, the poor guy’s heartbroken. He can’t even train, because every attack he summons reminds him of your fight. Heck, I still can’t look at my own spears the same way. I trained to kill humans my whole life, but…” Her voice trails off, and Undyne shakes her head. After a few moments of silence, Alphys says, “W-what she means is that we r-really miss you, Frisk, and we’re s-sorry that we couldn’t p-protect you.” 

“Yeah. What she said.” They place the flower down together and begin the long walk back down the mountain. As they leave, you faintly hear Undyne say, “You were right, Al. I do feel better.” The conversation continues, but they’re too far away for you to hear any of the words. Less than a minute later, another pair of monsters comes to leave a message, then another, each one giving you a new piece of the puzzle, and you begin to understand why they were reluctant to share the details of their escape. The final piece of information comes from a skeleton monster in an old blue hoodie, basketball shorts, and pink slippers, and a yellow flower whose roots are wrapped around the skeleton’s arm. They didn’t bring one of the blue flowers with them. The skeleton sits down in front of the statue, careful not to crush any of the blue flowers. “hey, kid. just wanted to tell you i’ve finally done it. i’ve found a way to put you back together.  i think i can find the pieces of your code in the save files. of course, it’s going to take me a while, and i can’t promise that it’ll work, but it can’t hurt to try, right? anything is better than where we are now. papyrus can’t even look me in the eyes, not that i can blame him, of course. maybe now i can finally do something right.”

 

As he sits in silence, you realize that this must be Sans, the person mentioned by both Toriel and Undyne. To your surprise, the golden flower on his shoulder begins to speak. “Sans, we’re both to blame here. If I hadn’t--” Sans interrupts him, his voice bitter. “that’s the thing, though. you aren’t to blame. it was my brilliant idea to mess with the foundations of our world, and the rest of you had to deal with the consequences. i killed her, flowey. sure, it was asgore who actually landed the final blow, but she was dead the minute she woke up in the ruins.”

 

Flowey shakes his head in exasperation. “Look, let’s not focus whose hands her blood is on. Let’s just go back and get ready to go into the code. You know Papyrus will want to see you before you go.” Sans nods and pushes himself up to his feet. “yeah. i should go see all of them. but let’s keep the plan between us. don’t want to get their hopes up.”

 

Sans walks back down the mountain path, leaving you to your confused thoughts. After almost an hour of waiting, it seems that no one else is coming up the path after Sans and Flowey leave. You almost decide to start the walk back down to your car, when the sound of footsteps cuts through the silence. It’s another skeleton, much taller than Sans, wearing an orange sweater, patchwork jeans, a red scarf, yellow mittens, and red rain boots. He approaches the statue reluctantly, one of the blue flowers held tightly in his gloved hands. “HUMAN. I MEAN, FRISK. IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS!” His voice quavers slightly with each word, as if he was a child trying to hold back tears. Despite this, he has a gigantic smile plastered across his face. “I AM SORRY THAT IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO VISIT. I JUST NEEDED SOME TIME TO…” Papyrus stops, his mouth opening and closing as he searches for the words. “THINK. YES. I NEEDED TIME TO THINK. ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THE UNDERGROUND. I WANTED TO APOLOGIZE. MY FRIEND--” He drops his flower, falling to his knees as his shoulders sag forward. “I’M SORRY. I PROMISED YOU THAT I WOULD PROTECT YOU, AND I FAILED. NO WONDER UNDYNE WILL NEVER LET ME INTO THE ROYAL GUARD. I COULDN’T EVEN SAVE ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS…” If not for the tone of his voice and look on his face, you might have laughed. Unfortunately for you, however, you feel a sneeze building up, and, despite your best efforts, it soon rings out in the quiet night air. Papyrus’s head immediately whips to face in your direction, and you’re surprised to see tears rolling down his face. He hastily wipes his face and stands up, summoning a bone attack as he looks around the mountainside warily. “WHO’S THERE? I MUST WARN YOU, I HAVE BEEN TRAINED BY THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD!” You stand up from your hiding spot and hold your hands up in a placating gesture. “Hey, let’s just put the attacks away.”

 

It’s probably the lamest line of diplomacy ever used, but, in your defense, it is very late. Papyrus’s shoulders relax, and his attack dissipates. “JUST A HUMAN.” He suddenly looks very uncomfortable, and asks hesitantly, “HOW MUCH DID YOU HEAR?”

 

“Honestly, more than I was supposed to. I just wanted to find out what these flowers were.” As the realization that you’ve been watching these people’s private moments of grief finally registers, you begin to feel horrible. “I’m so sorry for your loss.” Papyrus looks at the ground. “THANK YOU. I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND THAT YOU AREN’T REALLY SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED.”

 

“Yeah. I’m not usually an eavesdropper. Just sort of got stuck here after people started coming.” Your words just feel like flimsy excuses to you, but Papyrus seems to accept them. There’s an awkward silence as the two of you just stand and look at each other. Finally, you hold out your hand. “I’m (Y/N).” He takes your hand, giving it a firm shake. “I AM PAPYRUS, ROYAL GUARDSMAN IN TRAINING.”

 

“It’s nice to meet you, Papyrus.” You desperately try to think of something to say that won’t make the situation any worse. “Why did you come out here so late? Everyone else was here over an hour ago.”

 

“I DIDN’T WANT ANYONE TO SEE ME, BUT OBVIOUSLY MY EFFORTS WERE IN VAIN.” You have to force yourself not to laugh at his dramatic wording. “That makes sense. I don’t like crying in front of people either.”

 

“I WASN’T CRYING!” There are still tears rolling down the skeleton’s face. “WELL, MAYBE I WAS CRYING A LITTLE.” His admission is reluctant, and you decide not to press the matter. “If you were, it would be completely understandable.”

 

“OF COURSE! IT’S AN EMOTIONAL SUBJECT.” He wipes his eyes, and you pretend not to notice. “Well, I think maybe I should leave. It’s late. I’ll let you get back to what you were doing.”

 

Papyrus hesitates. “MAYBE I SHOULD WALK YOU BACK DOWN. IT’S VERY DARK, AND I DON’T WANT YOU TO FALL.” It takes a moment, but you realize that he doesn’t want to be left alone. “I would definitely feel safer with a Royal Guard in training with me.”

 

He puffs up slightly, and the fact that you’ve managed to cheer him up assuages your guilt over your accidental spying. The two of you begin the walk down the mountain path, and another thought crosses your mind. “How did you get here? I think I would’ve heard a car.”

 

“I WALKED!” You frown. “Really?”

 

“WELL, NONE OF US HAVE CARS YET, BUT IT IS MY DREAM TO HAVE MY OWN CAR!” The visible excitement on his face brings a smile to your face. “NOT THAT ANYONE WOULD SELL ME ONE.” This catches you off guard. “What do you mean?”

 

Papyrus’s tone is wistful as he says, “MANY HUMAN BUSINESSES ARE RELUCTANT TO HIRE OR SELL TO MONSTERS, AND YOUR GOVERNMENT STILL HASN’T COME UP WITH A WAY FOR US TO OBTAIN A DRIVER’S LICENSE. NO MONEY, NO LICENSE, NO CAR.” 

 

“You’d think we’d have adjusted by now.”

 

“YOUR PEOPLE STILL DON’T TRUST US. SANS GAVE ME A WORD FOR IT A FEW WEEKS AGO. I BELIEVE IT STARTED WITH A Z?”

 

“Xenophobia?”

 

“YES, THAT’S THE ONE. A FEAR OF PEOPLE WHO ARE DIFFERENT.” You nod. “Sounds about right.”

 

The two of you finally reach your car, and you turn to Papyrus. “Do you, uh, want a ride or something? I don’t like the idea of anyone walking by themselves on the roads this late.” Really, you still feel guilty about your eavesdropping and are looking for a way to make up for it. “THANK YOU FOR THE OFFER, (Y/N), BUT I HAVE TO DECLINE. NEW NEW HOME IS ONLY A MILE OR SO FROM HERE, AND IT’S IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION FROM THE CITY.”

 

“Alright. Well, if you ever find yourself in the city around lunchtime, look up Ebott City Diner. They’re monster-friendly, and if it’s during my shift I’ll pay for your meal.” Papyrus nods. “I MIGHT TAKE YOU UP ON THAT SOME TIME. GOOD NIGHT, (Y/N).”

 

“Good night, Papyrus.” You watch him walk away into the darkness before finally getting into your car and starting the drive home. As you drive down the dark, winding road into the city, you think about all that you learned that night. The speeches you’d heard from all of the monsters had outlined the story of something awful that had happened below the surface, but it had been something out of their control. However, even knowing that their participation was far from willing, you understand why they’re keeping it a secret. Most humans are afraid of monsters based on their appearance alone. If they found out that the monsters’ freedom had been gained through murder, it would make it even more difficult for humans to accept monsters. But, putting all that aside, you really did hope that Papyrus would accept your offer of an apology meal. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this mess! Huge thanks to my editor, @coffee_crab, who does an amazing job making sure my writing is palatable. If you want to know more about the AU, please check out the Q&A or my other reader insert, How to Debug a Bad Mood (links below). Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this! If you have any ideas, critiques, or you just want to give me some encouragement, please let me know in a comment!
> 
> Q&A: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15807006 
> 
> How to Debug a Bad Mood: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15795159


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